HCMC Chairman Nguyen Thanh Phong has also asked the city's Health Department to invest in upgrading facilities before March 31 to be able to test more than 5,000 swab samples per day.

The department is requested to direct hospitals and health facilities to comply with Covid-19 prevention measures for the next 15 days. It is also asked to arrange and rearrange areas in medical examination and treatment facilities as also adjust the operation process to ensure that there are no places that are too crowded. Hospitals must refrain from holding meetings in person and make these an online activity.

Health workers should not gather in large numbers and should refrain from attending events like weddings and funerals. They should also not eat out. If there is any gathering that they have to attend, medical workers must keep a distance of 2 m and not gather more than three people, wear a mask and other personal protective gear as needed. Health workers and their family members must limit going out unless it is an emergency.

Hospitals have already strengthened measures to closely monitor visits by patients' relatives towards minimizing contact between outsiders and health workers as well as patients.

Vietnam has so far confirmed 163 Covid-19 cases, including 143 active ones. Forty of these are from HCMC.

Most of the active cases in Vietnam are those who’ve come back from Europe and the U.S. and people who’ve come into close contact with them.

Globally, the Covid-19 pandemic has spread to 199 countries and territories, claiming over 24,000 lives.